Privacy and anonymity; software recommended but unable to use!

I'm hoping that someone may be able to help with a problem I have concerning four pieces of software... I've been recommended Stunnel, Tor, Privoxy and Freecap, for anonymity and privacy.

Now, I am not a complete amatuer on a PC. I know my way around software and how to configure settings, and I've installed my own USB board and recordable DVD drives in my PC. I run anti-spyware stuff, and can recommend the right kind of software to people in need, and can use Hijackthis without problems... but these four have me STUMPED. They are obviously made for people with a competent knowledge of computer systems, which although I would love to have, sadly lack.

I'm hoping that someone here knows something about how these four go together. I know that Tor and Privoxy are meant to actually work together, but I followed some instruction on a set-up guide to no avail.

If you just want privacy browsing, get firefox and the switchproxy plugin which makes it so easy to switch proxies. Otherwise find a working proxy server and put it in your proxy options in the Internt explorer connections settings

There's many sofwares for protecting privacy and get a 'virtual anonymity".
Some of them are more easy to use or more efficient than others.
But it's better to choose a strong privacy protection then searching anonimyty.

SwitchProxy is perhaps a great extension, but it'll weaken the level defense(you'll have to find fresh proxies).
Just a link for more information:

I can't help you with Stunnel or FreeCap (I don't use either), but to get SocksCap working with Tor/Privoxy, I had to enter (on the Settings/Socks Settings tab) "Socks Server 127.0.0.1 Port 9050" to get SocksCap to go through Privoxy. HTH Pete

For Tor, you need either use Sockscap or Privoxy but you don't need both. If you only wish to use Tor with a browser, then Privoxy would be a better choice (it offers HTML filtering and logging capabilities which can be useful). Sockscap allows other applications to access Tor.

Firefox can access Socks proxies directly so could access Tor without any further configuration, but it is a good idea to use a web filter (Proxomitron being the most powerful) to ensure that your browser does not "leak" information about you.

For Privoxy, you need to edit the main configuration (config.txt) to add the line forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 . to "Section 5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a". Proxomitron (if you are using it) or your browser should then be configured to use Privoxy (address 127.0.0.1, port 8118 ).

Spy1,

...to get SocksCap working with Tor/ Privoxy, I had to enter (on the Settings/Socks Settings tab) "Socks Server 127.0.0.1 Port 9050" to get SocksCap to go through Privoxy.

Click to expand...

If you are using SocksCap on Privoxy, then this is unnecessary (indeed, the step you describe would have told SocksCap *not* to Socksify connections to Tor, effectively making SocksCap redundant). Just check that you have configured Privoxy as mentioned above.